And fair enough. The Auditor-General and her Deputy have had separate reports, agreeing that it’s cost us probably hundreds of millions. Although without an enquiry figures are a stab in the dark, the latest figure out yesterday was $400 million of unnecessary expense if Treasury oversight had started earlier, and been more rigorous.

Treasury’s excuses – that the scheme was complicated and that’s why they took half a year to have any oversight; and that they didn’t want to interfere in the markets even when they were overseeing it – don’t add up. The scheme in itself was interference in the market – interference that many took advantage of as South Canterbury Finance, for instance, upped their retail deposits by a quarter – adding $300 million to what we had to pay out.

The ODT has an excellent editorial on the need for an enquiry. $2 billion was paid out as 9 of the 30 finance companies covered by the scheme failed. Less than half of that is expected to be recovered.

Oversight of the scheme was so lax that money ended up in the hands of the likes of:

Gavin Arthur Bennett, former managing director of IT company DataSouth, [who] was sentenced to eight years’ jail. His crime? Committing frauds totalling $103 million, including $23 million from South Canterbury Finance (SCF).

Now losing $400 million unnecessarily is no small change:

The great IT disaster that was INCIS cost $110 million – and got a full enquiry.

$400 million would pay for us to host another whole Rugby World Cup.

Hekia Parata’s cutting a teacher from each school around the country is hoping to save us $170 million. So we could keep that teacher and get ourselves another one with cash to spare.

Bill English can’t be allowed to hide this under the plus Treasury carpet, so his lack of oversight of Treasury isn’t shown up.

We need an enquiry to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

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14 comments on “Retail Deposit Guarantee: When’s the enquiry?”

Any other Government Department that had just lost the country a million dollars, let alone several billion, would have had the Chief Executive and probably the entire senior management team wiped out. Where ‘s the Audit office when you need them?

They are also utterly incompetent at holding the single discipline of their “Better Business Case” discipline onto either NZTA or the Minister of Transport. So now we get to have BC’s to the end of the earth for Auckland’s City Rail Link, but oh no we can’t possibly run a decent ruler over the Puhoi-Wellsford motorway. And just as bad, the Wellington-Foxton series of motorways. Hypocrisy and waste at the same time.

Quite happy being the great attack dogs for their Minister against every other Ministry or local government initiative, but just a bunch of cowards when it comes to their own house.

And even worse despite being the ‘best and the brightest’ the public sector has to offer, because they keep telling the entire public service that’s what they are, they can’t forecast their way out of a paper bag, so the Government never forecasts its cash position or its total income position so badly (and therefore has to borrow more every year).

The mind-shift those guys are going to have to do if Russell Norman gets into Minister of Finance is going to be amazing to watch.

I hope a Labour-Greens government goes through the entire Treatury like cold steel. Root those arrogant worms out one by one and expose them. Or merge them out of existence.

I’m thinking that Treasury are due for their own efficiency cuts. If we cut their budget by 50% or more I’m sure they’ll get real efficient real fast – they won’t cost as much and their forecasts will still be wrong.

Agreed there should be an enquiry, but it will not take place until we have a Labour led Government.
As Minister of Finance Russel Norman will be the first to inplement this.
However as a Minister he should be careful politically interfering in a Govenment department – it could backfire, as it is with Parata, where the Ministry like her even less than Trolley Tolly, and that’s being mild.

The RDGS and South Canterbury Finance’s continued permitted membership has been the crime of the century to date. And we’re only 12 years into it!

Why won’t Key or English stand up and answer in a full and complete manner the questions around why the outfit was allowed to remain in the scheme despite Key and English being told on their first day in office that “(they) knew it was going under”.

Was it because the loss of $1,700,000.00 to the wider Canterbury region, and especially the farming investors, would stifle the planned irrigation and intensification of Canterbury farmland? Was it because it would have simply pissed off so many in Timaru, often a labour seat, that it was detrimental to future politics? Was it because most of the SCF investors were simply good long-time Nat Party members?

That was a rare opportunity for the beancounters at Treasury to show they could hack it in the real world. Textbook theory met reality and didn’t they blow it big time. The business community frequently warned the Govt what would happen, it was utterly predictable, but the Treasury trogs knew better than the people in business. Tossers.

Can’t see English going for an inquiry, Treasury is the Finance Minister he’s just the talking head.

I’d forgotten that SCF was admitted into the guarantee by National in 2010, which really does change the picture I had. Take SCF out of the equation and the losses attributable to Labour aren’t that great considering the original circumstances.

I’d think a list of all the people who had money invested in SCF before they were admitted to the guarantee might be very revealing. It’s become clear now they stood to lose most of their cash if SCF hadn’t been admitted to the scheme. Lucky them huh.

Yeah I can remember that one. I did misread the linked commentary though. Just checked and SCF were part of the original guarantee, it’s the extended guarantee that National approved them for. That changes things a bit but still doesn’t negate the need for a full inquiry.

Yes it does because there is more information that will come out. I read, can’t remember the name, that an American company was going to buy SCF with both liabilities and assets. Key stopped the deal without an explanation. I believe it would have cost the taxpayer more like 300 million if the deal went through. I believe some of Key’s mates made a lot of money off the backs of the taxpayers.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzBy Dr Alexandra Wake in Melbourne As a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Kirakira in the Solomon Islands early today, triggering a tsunami warning across the Pacific, many residents of the country would have ...

We are always comparing ourselves to other parents, but comparing yourself to animals probably isn’t always a good idea. Thom Adams explains why. Mother hens, tiger mums, pangolin dads… as parents, we do have a habit of comparing ourselves with ...

Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases.ALBUM OF THE WEEKChildish Gambino – Awaken, My LoveGive it a first listen and you’d be forgiven for thinking Awaken, My Love! wasn’t a Childish Gambino record ...

Tara Ward does the unthinkable, and binge-watches 22 episodes of guinea pig dates on TVNZ Ondemand. It’s not often you enjoy a guinea pig’s quest for true love. Hardly ever, in fact. So when the televisual universe vomits up a ...

Henry Oliver tries to go deep with Los Angeles rapper Vince Staples, fails, and asks him about basketball and cartoons instead.Vince Staples is young, very skilled and very, very chill. He raps fast, but talks slow. His records are ...

As the country counts down to the Joseph Parker vs Andy Ruiz WBO world heavyweight championship fight, The Spinoff presents FIGHT WEEK, an inside look at the life and career of Joseph Parker. Today we’re republishing ‘Inside Team Parker’, the ...

With summer upon us, there is no better time to shut all the sunlight out of your room, pull a blanket over your head and watch TV until your eyes hurt. We assemble the best shows on Lightbox that you ...

Superstar of breakfast radio, All Black captain and owner of a world-class duck face, John Key is one hell of a hard act to follow. But is the PM-designate really that boring? Toby Manhire crushes forever the Dull Bill English ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzPacific countries on tsunami alert following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake off Solomon Islands. Image: USGS A tsunami warning has been issued for several Pacific countries – including Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu ...

He wants to be a tax-raising and lowering, eat-the-rich Trump-but-not-like-that of the political centre. Duncan Greive heads to Parnell for the Gareth Morgan party’s very odd first policy launch. “Make New Zealand fair again,” says Gareth Morgan, more than once ...

New verse by Dunedin writer Emma Neale.Tag From the tangle of trees by the Warrender Street steps near where city council crews have been deleting the fuck-cunts and dick pics sprayed on the path, sharper than the ...

‘Business is Boring’ is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...

John Key was first elected Prime Minister in 2008. What was New Zealand like when the era of radio banter, ponytail pulling, and bad singing was just beginning? Having trouble viewing the quiz? Take it here. ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzFear and Desperation: Refugees and Migrants Pour into Greece. Prizewinning footage shot in October 2015 – March 2016, Greece. Video: Rory Peck Awards Will Vassilopoulos, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) stringer since 2011, has won the Rory Peck ...

If we were able to speak to the people we were when we first became parents, what would we say? Kiri Speirs reaches back through the years to speak to the mum she was to her beloved daughter Zoe.Dear ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzOPINION:By Peter S. Kinjap in Port Moresby Many current Papua New Guinean parliamentarians are highly respected individuals in their own areas – successful in business, education or public service. With such backgrounds, they routinely attract great ...

Novelist Graeme Lay bids a belated farewell to Auckland’s least glamorous but most useful shopping centre. It was one of the ugliest buildings in Auckland’s central business district, in a part of town where there was tough competition for that ...

The latest installment of Final Fantasy has been released from its cage into the arms of millions of fans. Resident Fantas-ites(?) Eugenia Woo and Matthew Codd settled around the old Skype and discussed what worked, what didn’t and why the ...

In the face of everything from anecdote posing as evidence to bias peddlers to outright quackery, the best riposte is to champion good science. But how? Dr Jessica Berentson-Shaw offers seven tips. Science and evidence gets a pretty bad ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzA car is half buried under the remains of a collapsed house in Pidie Jaya regency, Aceh, on yesterday after an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit the northeastern part of the province. Image: ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzRappler’s Evening wRap on President Duterte and the death penalty.By Mara Cepeda in Manila A proposed measure seeking to reimpose the death penalty in the Philippines has decisively passed the House committee level. Voting 12-6-1, the ...

All week this week we recommend the very best, A-grade quality, guaranteed good books for Christmas. Today: The Shops, by Steve Braunias and Peter Black. Why do photographers talk so much? The best thing about working with Wellington photographer Peter ...

An in-depth Spinoff investigation reveals exactly who invented What Now gunge and unravels the mystery of the secret recipe. Calum Henderson reports. A traditional What Now gunging. (Photo: YouTube – ‘What Now’s Best Gunge!’) “I was gunged while wearing a ...

A byelection is likely in Mt Albert should David Shearer’s South Sudan challenge be confirmed, signalling the departure of the last ex-leader, and leaving the question hanging: did Labour err in knifing him? “Former leaders” are a mixed blessing for ...